PHILIPPINES
Police rescue US boy
Police say they have rescued a four-year-old US boy who was held for ransom for eight days and that five suspects have been arrested. Isagani Nerez, head of the police anti-crime unit, said yesterday that the boy was seized by three gunmen on Dec. 6 in Manila while traveling in a car with his Philippine mother. A ransom was paid three days later, but the kidnappers demanded more money before releasing the boy. Nerez said police feared the boy would be harmed and traced his location with the help of FBI agents to the kidnappers’ hideout in Prieto Diaz, Sorsogon province. On Wednesday, police stormed the site and rescued the boy unharmed. Nerez said the boy was in good health and reunited with his family.
SOUTH KOREA
‘Bunker-buster’ being made
The country is developing a bomb capable of penetrating North Korean bunkers or caves housing artillery pieces, a member of parliament’s defense committee said. An aide to lawmaker Song Young-sun quoted her as saying that the state-run Agency for Defense Development (ADD) launched a 6.2 billion won (US$5.35 million) project last year to develop the “bunker-buster.” “ADD is developing a bomb capable of penetrating 1.5m concrete walls with a view to completion by 2013,” Song was quoted as saying on Thursday. North Korea’s long-range artillery is often hidden in fortified caves and rolled out to fire shots before being rapidly pushed back. For this reason, troops were unable to retaliate effectively when the North shelled Yeonpyeong Island near the disputed Yellow Sea border in November last year. The ADD also plans to develop another bomb capable of penetrating 5m or 6m once the initial bunker-buster is completed, Chosun said.
CHINA
Christian Bale roughed up
Hollywood actor Christian Bale was roughed up by Chinese security guards as he attempted to visit a blind legal activist whose detention has sparked a domestic and international outcry, CNN reported yesterday. Bale, who plays crime-fighting superhero Batman, and a camera crew from CNN were jostled by men in plainclothes from Dongshigu Village in Shandong Province, where activist Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠) has been under house arrest for 15 months, according to a video released by CNN on its Web site. “Why can I not visit this man?” Bale asked several security officers, while they were pushing him.
ROMANIA
Record wish-list made
These days, Santa Claus could well feel nostalgic about the time when the country was communist and its governments frowned upon Christmas. Why? Because now that it is a democracy and capitalist, Romania is trying to set an all-time record for the world’s longest wish list for Father Christmas. And while the gifts children want are not all that surprising, the adult requests include everything from a new husband and a 365-day holiday to a Nobel prize. Many people in the country still believe in witchcraft, so few were surprised when managers at a shopping mall recently conducted a survey and found that many adults believe in Santa as much as children do. That prompted the Liberty Center mall in south Bucharest to begin trying to create the world’s longest wish-list letter to Santa, with handwritten requests from children and grown-ups. So far, the list is more than 60m long and growing by the day, with more than 1,000 requests. The letter to Santa Claus started on Dec. 1 and it will close on Dec. 23.
UNITED NATIONS
Qaddafi’s death dubious: ICC
The death of former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, who was captured and killed by rebels in October, might have been a war crime, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Thursday. “I think the way in which Mr Qaddafi was killed creates suspicions of ... war crimes,” ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters. “I think that’s a very important issue. We are raising this concern to the national authorities and they are preparing a plan to have a comprehensive strategy to investigate all these crimes.” Under pressure from Western allies, Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) has promised to investigate how Qaddafi and his son Al-Mutassim Billah were killed. Cellphone footage showed both alive after their capture. The former Libyan leader was seen being mocked, beaten and abused before he died, in what NTC officials said was crossfire.
UNITED STATES
Shots fired at consulate
Police said they have arrested a man in relation to a Thursday afternoon shooting outside the Chinese consulate building in downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times reported that a protester fired nine shots at a security guard at about 2:15pm, but only hit the building. The man, whose name wasn’t released, turned himself in about three hours later, officer Gregory Baek said. A group demonstrating against human rights abuses in China had gathered outside the consulate earlier on Thursday. One protester argued with a security guard after the guard allegedly took a sign and threw it in the trash. The protester then got into a vehicle and allegedly opened fire. The security guard, Cipriano Gutierrez, told KCAL-9 television that there were about 20 people inside the consulate when the man fired at the building. No injuries were reported.
ARGENTINA
Photographs show bodies
A human rights commission has provided a judge with photographs showing the bodies of dissidents believed to have been tossed out of airplanes during the country’s military dictatorship in the 1970s. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights gave the judge 130 photographs showing the tortured bodies of about 20 people found on the coast of Uruguay at the time. Human rights groups say victims received injections to put them to sleep before they were thrown from planes to their deaths. The images handed over on Thursday are considered key evidence in confirming the flights during the country’s dictatorship between 1976 and 1983. Human rights groups say about 30,000 people were killed under the regime.
UNITED STATES
Spector keeps fighting
A lawyer for imprisoned music legend Phil Spector is asking the Supreme Court to review his murder conviction, saying Spector’s constitutional rights were violated by the trial judge. Attorney Dennis Riordan contends that Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler became a witness for the prosecution by offering his opinion on an expert’s testimony. The filing was expected to reach the court yesterday. It cites the prosecution’s use of the judge’s videotaped comments and his picture during prosecution summations. The same arguments were made to state appellate justices, who refused to consider them because of a belated filing. They upheld Spector’s second-degree murder conviction in the death of actress Lana Clarkson. The California Supreme Court declined to review the case. Spector is serving 19 years to life in prison.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was